An apparatus and method improve the readability of text on a computer system by changing the positioning of one or more words to eliminate potential problems in readability that can be identified by examining the text. When a potential problem is identified, the word to word positioning of text may be adjusted to compress one or more lines and/or to expand one or more lines to move one or more words to a different line. For example, if two adjacent lines begin with the same word, the first line could be compressed so the first word of the second line is moved to the end of the first line. In the alternative, the first line could be expanded so the last word of the first line is moved to the first word of the second line. By selectively changing the positioning of words, the readability of the text may be greatly improved.
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7. A method for improving the readability of text comprising a plurality of words in a plurality of lines, the method comprising the steps of:
analyzing the words in at least two lines of text; determining whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that end with the same word; and changing the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text. 6. A method for improving the readability of text comprising a plurality of words in a plurality of lines, the method comprising the steps of:
analyzing the words in at least two lines of text; determining whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that begin with the same word; and changing the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text. 9. A method for improving the readability of text comprising a plurality of words in a plurality of lines, the method comprising the steps of:
analyzing the words in at least two lines of text; determining whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that end with the same part of speech; and changing the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text. 8. A method for improving the readability of text comprising a plurality of words in a plurality of lines, the method comprising the steps of:
analyzing the words in at least two lines of text; determining whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that begin with the same part of speech; and changing the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text. 10. A method for improving the readability of text comprising a plurality of words in a plurality of lines, the method comprising the steps of:
analyzing the words in at least two lines of text; determining whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that each have a last word that ends a sentence; and changing the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text. 16. A program product comprising:
a word positioning processor that analyzes the words in at least two lines of text, determines whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that end with the same word, the word positioning processor changing the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text; and computer-readable signal bearing media bearing the word positioning processor.
13. A program product comprising:
a word positioning processor that analyzes the words in at least two lines of text, determines whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that begin with the same word, the word positioning processor changing the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text; and computer-readable signal bearing media bearing the word positioning processor.
22. A program product comprising:
a word positioning processor that analyzes the words in at least two lines of text, determines whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that end with the same part of speech, the word positioning processor changing the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text; and computer-readable signal bearing media bearing the word positioning processor.
19. A program product comprising:
a word positioning processor that analyzes the words in at least two lines of text, determines whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that begin with the same part of speech, the word positioning processor changing the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text; and computer-readable signal bearing media bearing the word positioning processor.
25. A program product comprising:
a word positioning processor that analyzes the words in at least two lines of text, determines whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that each have a last word that ends a sentence, the word positioning processor changing the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text; and computer-readable signal bearing media bearing the word positioning processor.
2. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a software application residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the software application arranging a plurality of lines of text, each line comprising a plurality of words, wherein the software application includes: a word positioning processor that analyzes the words in at least two lines of text, determines whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that end with the same word, wherein the word positioning processor changes the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text. 1. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a software application residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the software application arranging a plurality of lines of text, each line comprising a plurality of words, wherein the software application includes: a word positioning processor that analyzes the words in at least two lines of text, determines whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that begin with the same word, wherein the word positioning processor changes the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text. 4. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a software application residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the software application arranging a plurality of lines of text, each line comprising a plurality of words, wherein the software application includes: a word positioning processor that analyzes the words in at least two lines of text, determines whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that end with the same part of speech, wherein the word positioning processor changes the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text. 3. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor: a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a software application residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the software application arranging a plurality of lines of text, each line comprising a plurality of words, wherein the software application includes: a word positioning processor that analyzes the words in at least two lines of text, determines whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that begin with the same part of speech, wherein the word positioning processor changes the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text. 5. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a software application residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the software application arranging a plurality of lines of text, each line comprising a plurality of words, wherein the software application includes: a word positioning processor that analyzes the words in at least two lines of text, determines whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text, wherein the at least one readability problem includes two adjacent lines that each have a last word that ends a sentence, wherein the word positioning processor changes the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text. 12. A method for improving the readability of text comprising a plurality of words in a plurality of lines, the method comprising the steps of:
(A) analyzing the words in at least two lines of text; (B) determining whether a sentence makes sense grammatically when one of the lines of text is removed; (C) determining whether any two adjacent lines begin with the same word; (D) determining whether any two adjacent lines end with the same word; (E) determining whether any two adjacent lines begin with the same part of speech; (F) determining whether any two adjacent lines end with the same part of speech; (G) determining whether any two adjacent lines each have a last word that ends a sentence; (H) changing the line position of at least one word portion in the text to eliminate at least one of the conditions identified in steps (B) through (G) from the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (1) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (2) expanding a first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text. 11. A method for improving the readability of text comprising a plurality of words in a plurality of lines, the method comprising the steps of:
analyzing the words in at least two lines of text; determining whether at least one readability problem is present in the at least two lines of text by performing the steps of: (A) determining whether a sentence makes sense grammatically when one of the lines of text is removed; (B) determining whether two adjacent lines begin with the same word; (C) determining whether two adjacent lines end with the same word; (D) determining whether two adjacent lines begin with the same part of speech; (E) determining whether two adjacent lines end with the same part of speech; and (F) determining whether two adjacent lines each have a last word that ends a sentences; changing the line position of at least one word portion in the text to improve the readability of the text by performing at least one of the following steps: (A) compressing a first line of text so the first word of the following line of text moves to the end of the first line of text; (B) expanding the first line of text so the last word of the first line of text moves to the beginning of the following line of text. 14. The program product of
15. The program product of
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20. (New) The program product of
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to the data processing field. More specifically, the present invention relates to the arrangement of text by a software application.
2. Background Art
Computer systems are often used to display text to a user on a computer display or to output text to a printer. When reading an article with a lot of text, there is sometimes a tendency for the reader's eye to go to the wrong line when moving from one line to the next. For example, instead of picking up on the next line, the reader may instead pick up on the line just read, and then get momentarily confused until the reader realizes the mistake. The reader must then go back and start the sentence over again to regain the train of thought, trying carefully to go to the correct line the next time. Sometimes, in going from one line to the next, the reader may pick up one line too far down, missing a line. Depending on the grammar flow, the reader may not detect the mistake, causing the reader to miss some potentially important information.
Most modern software applications that manipulate text, such as word processors and web browsers, have an automatic word wrap feature that breaks a line of text along word boundaries when a margin is encountered, and may include many features such as font size, margins, spacing between letters, etc. that control how text appears to a user. However, these features address the physical arrangement of the text without regard to which words are present in the text and their positions relative to each other. The readability of text on a computer display or printout is affected by the relative positions of words in the text. For example, if two adjacent lines of text begin with the same word, the user might be inclined to skip a line when reading the text, or at least to pause to assure he or she is reading the proper line. Even if the words are different, if two adjacent lines of text begin with the same part of speech, the text will probably be readable if a line is skipped, making the text harder to read. The prior art applications have no way of changing the line position of words to make the text more readable based on defined readability problems that may exist in the text. Without an apparatus and method for changing word positions to improve readability of text, software applications will continue to arrange text without regard to potential readability problems, and users will thus continue to have problems reading computer-generated text when readability problems exist in the text.
An apparatus and method improve the readability of text on a computer system by changing the positioning of one or more words to eliminate potential problems in readability that can be identified by examining the text. When a potential problem is identified, the word to word positioning of text may be adjusted to compress one or more lines and/or to expand one or more lines to move one or more words to a different line. For example, if two adjacent lines begin with the same word, the first line could be compressed so the first word of the second line is moved to the end of the first line. In the alternative, the first line could be expanded so the last word of the first line is moved to the first word of the second line. By selectively changing the positioning of words, the readability of the text may be greatly improved.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of preferred embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
According to preferred embodiments of the present invention, an apparatus and method selectively change the line-to-line word positioning of text to improve readability of the text. The present invention applies to any arrangement of text, whether displayed to a user on a display device, printed in hard-copy form, or any other arrangement of text known in the art or developed in the future.
Referring to
Main memory 120 in accordance with the preferred embodiments contains data 122, an operating system 124, and a software application 126 that contains a word positioning processor 127 that functions in accordance with a set of defined readability problems 128. Computer system 100 utilizes well known virtual addressing mechanisms that allow the programs of computer system 100 to behave as if they only have access to a large, single storage entity instead of access to multiple, smaller storage entities such as main memory 120 and DASD device 155. Therefore, while data 122, operating system 124, and software application 126 are shown to reside in main memory 120, those skilled in the art will recognize that these items are not necessarily all completely contained in main memory 120 at the same time. It should also be noted that the term "memory" is used herein to generically refer to the entire virtual memory of computer system 100.
Data 122 represents any data that serves as input to or output from any program in computer system 100. Operating system 124 is a multitasking operating system known in the industry as OS/400; however, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the spirit and scope of the present invention is not limited to any one operating system. Software application 126 is any software that arranges text. Examples include word processors, web browsers, spreadsheets, etc.
Word positioning processor 127 analyzes text arranged by software application 126, determines whether any of the defined readability problems 128 are present in the text, and selectively changes the position of one or more words in the text to alter the line-to-line positioning of words to make the text more readable. Examples of defined readability problems 128 are provided in
Processor 110 may be constructed from one or more microprocessors and/or integrated circuits. Processor 110 executes program instructions stored in main memory 120. Main memory 120 stores programs and data that processor 110 may access. When computer system 100 starts up, processor 110 initially executes the program instructions that make up operating system 124. Operating system 124 is a sophisticated program that manages the resources of computer system 100. Some of these resources are processor 110, main memory 120, mass storage interface 130, terminal interface 140, network interface 150, and system bus 160.
Although computer system 100 is shown to contain only a single processor and a single system bus, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention may be practiced using a computer system that has multiple processors and/or multiple buses. In addition, the interfaces that are used in the preferred embodiment each include separate, fully programmed microprocessors that are used to off-load compute-intensive processing from processor 110. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention applies equally to computer systems that simply use I/O adapters to perform similar functions.
Terminal interface 140 is used to directly connect one or more terminals 165 to computer system 100. These terminals 165, which may be non-intelligent (i.e., dumb) terminals or fully programmable workstations, are used to allow system administrators and users to communicate with computer system 100. Note, however, that while terminal interface 140 is provided to support communication with one or more terminals 165, computer system 100 does not necessarily require a terminal 165,.because all needed interaction with users and other processes may occur via network interface 150.
Network interface 150 is used to connect other computer systems and/or workstations (e.g., 175 in
At this point, it is important to note that while the present invention has been and will continue to be described in the context of a fully functional computer system, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention is capable of being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that the present invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of signal bearing media used to actually carry out the distribution. Examples of suitable signal bearing media include: recordable type media such as floppy disks (e.g., 195 of
Referring to
Method 200 as shown in
Referring to
Each text section is then processed for readability problems.
If two lines past the current line is still in the current section being processed (step 720=NO), the section is tested and adjusted (step 730) in an attempt to solve one or more readability problems in the text section. The details of step 730 are discussed in more detail below in reference to FIG. 8. Once the test and adjust step 730 is complete for the first few lines of the text section, the current line is then assigned to the next line (step 740), and processing continues. This process continues until each line is considered, making adjustments as required for each line in the text section being processed.
Note that the grammar checking performed in steps 830 and 860 in
Referring now to method 890 in
Note that there may be thresholds that are set to determine whether or not an adjustment technique should be considered at all. For example, if a compression requires compressing more than eight spaces, the compression could return a very high score (or a representation of infinity) so that the compression adjustment technique will not be selected. Likewise, if an expansion requires expanding more than sixteen spaces, the expansion would also return a very high (or infinite) score. Note also that it may be impossible to compress a line if the number of available spaces is less than the threshold.
Once the first adjustment technique has been considered, the next adjustment technique is analyzed. The current line is copied into a buffer again (step 912). The current line is then expanded until the last word in the current line moves to the first word of (current line+1) (step 914). The adjustment technique is then scored (step 916), the score is normalized (step 918) and the normalized score is saved (step 920), similar to steps 906, 908 and 910 discussed above. The current line is then copied into a buffer again (step 922). The (current line+1) is then compressed until the first word of the next line (current line+2) moves to the last word of (current line+1) (step 924). This adjustment technique is then scored (step 926), the score is normalized (step 928) and the normalized score is saved (step 930), similar to the steps already described. The current line is then copied into a buffer again (step 932), and the (current line+1) is expanded until the last word of the (current line+1) moves to the first word of the (current line+2) (step 934). The adjustment technique is then scored (step 936), the score is normalized (step 938), and the normalized score is saved (step 940). Method 890 then continues on FIG. 10.
Once all the normalized scores are stored for each different possible adjustment technique to each possible problem, these adjusted scores are compared to the weight of the readability problem that is trying to be solved (step 1010). If all normalized scores exceed the weight of the problem (step 1010=YES), method 890 returns, and was unable to improve the readability of the three lines beginning at the current line. If one or more normalized scores are less than the weight of the problem (step 1010=NO), the adjustment technique with the best normalized score is retrieved (step 1020). Next, step 1030 determines whether the text with the adjustment technique applied is better or worse than without the adjustment technique applied (step 1030). The details of step 1030 are discussed below with reference to the method 1030 of FIG. 11. If the text with the adjustment technique is no better (step 1040=NO), method 890 returns without making any changes to the three lines beginning at the current line. If the text with the adjustment technique is better (i.e., more readable) (step 1040=YES), the adjustment technique with the best normalized score is applied to the text (step 1050), and the resulting test is then reflowed for readability (step 350). Because one change in line-to-line word spacing can change the beginning and ending words of lines in the rest of the paragraph, the change must be reflowed to step 350 to determine whether any readability problems have arisen due to the adjustment technique that was applied. Once method 890 returns from step 350, it gives control back to method 730, which then returns to step 740 in FIG. 7.
In
In the preferred embodiments, the weights of each readability problem are preferably defaulted to system settings that are derived from readability studies. However, these defaults can be overridden by the user. Referring to
User interface dialog box 1300 of
Some examples of defined readability problems and possible solutions in accordance with the preferred embodiments are shown in
Another example of a defined readability problem is shown in
A final example of a defined readability problem is shown in
The preferred embodiments disclosed herein provide a way for a software application to automatically arrange text so the text is more readable to a user. This feature is especially useful in word processors and web browsers, but also has great value with a large number of other types of software as well. For example, the present invention could be implemented in a print driver that controls how text is arranged on a hard copy. The present invention expressly extends to any and all software that arrange text in any form whatever.
Note that the examples presented herein change the readability of text by moving words from one line to another. However, it is equally within the scope of the preferred embodiments to move word portions instead by appropriately splitting a word between lines using a hyphen. For example, in
The embodiments and examples set forth herein were presented in order to best explain the present invention and its practical application and to thereby enable those skilled in the art to make and use the invention. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that the foregoing description and examples have been presented for the purposes of illustration and example only. The description as set forth is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching without departing from the spirit and scope of the forthcoming claims. For example, problem 8 in
Bates, Cary Lee, Day, Paul Reuben
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